WASHINGTON, DC—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder and CEO of the Yale School of Management’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute and a leader in the movement encouraging American companies to withdraw from Russia after the country’s attack on Ukraine, has joined the lineup of speakers at our PRovokeGlobal conference later this month.

Sonnenfeld, who maintains a database of which companies have withdrawn from Russia and which have continued to do business there, and has also conducted research into the impact of sanctions and boycotts on the Russian economy was told by cabinet members that his work “changed the zeitgeist in the administration as well as the narrative in the media on the truth of Putin’s faltering economic performance.”

Says PRovokeMedia founder Paul Holmes, "Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is one of a handful of management and leadership experts who really understand how corporate reputation impacts business performance. His work demonstrating stakeholder expectations about the corporate response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine is only the most recent example of his work in this arena and he will be an exciting and provocative addition to our PRovokeGlobal agenda."

Sonnenfeld will appear at PRovokeGlobal at a session sponsored by Edelman.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld served as full tenured professor at Emory's Goizueta Business School for a decade and a professor at the Harvard Business School for a decade, and is currently the senior associate dean of leadership programs as well as the Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management for the Yale School of Management.

Professor Sonnenfeld's research has been published in 100 scholarly articles which appeared in leading academic journals. He has also authored eight books, including The Hero's Farewell, an award-winning study of CEO succession, and another best seller, Firing Back, a study on leadership resilience in the face of adversity.

BusinessWeek listed Sonnenfeld as one of the world’s 10 most influential business school professors and Directorship magazine has listed him among the 100 most influential figures in corporate governance. He is the first academician to have rung the opening bells of both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

He joins a list of speakers and panelists that also features Jen Psaki, who recently joined MSNBC after serving as President Biden’s first press secretary during 2021 and 2022; journalist Frank Bruni, who spent more than 25 years at The New York Times; CEO of the Society of Human Resource Management Johnny Taylor; Patagonia communications chief Corley Kenna; and UK government communications chief Alex Aiken.

Tickets for the PRovoke Global Summit on October 25 and 26, the Entrepreneurs’ Forum on October 24, and the Global SABRE Awards dinner on the evening of October 26 are available now.